Chapter_33
“That way,” William insisted, pointing forward. “Get going.”
As Christine, Terzin, and Samantha continued to run down the slight decline in the hallway, Marissa kept turning back, looking for Alex. Her pace had slowed almost to a stop in the process.
She watched William barrel towards her. With the shield in hand, he grabbed under her arm and nudged her forward. He understood what she was feeling. But he knew they couldn’t afford the time to lament. As the hallway shook and bits of shimmering stone fell on them from the ceiling, William recognized that if they didn’t determine what was causing the instability in the Earth’s crust, the planet was doomed.
The sound of ricocheting pellets from the rail guns faded the further they moved down the hallway. Marissa could not but help think of Alex alone, standing against an entire battalion of WOGs led by a man bent on killing him.
With Marissa in tow, William saw both Terzin and Samantha come to a stop about ten feet ahead of him. He prompted, “Keep moving! They could be right behind us.”
Once he finally reached them, he understood why they stopped their retreat. His legs began to falter at the majestic site before him.
“What is this?” William asked, standing side by side with his friends in awe. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know.” Christine uttered, equally amazed. “None of this was in the vision.”
“Any ideas, Terzin?” Samantha inquired.
She was at a loss, too. “I just don’t know. My ancestors never spoke of such a place. Whether the knowledge was lost over these long years or simply never provided to us, I cannot answer.”
William took a deep breath; the run had winded him. Upon inhaling deeply, he noted the air was surprisingly crisp and clean, as if filtered by the most modern system. In fact, it seemed to clear his mind and rejuvenate his body at the same time.
With a little extra energy, he asked, “Where to now?”
Though they all wanted to continue moving, no one knew where to go. The immensity of the area in front of them was daunting. The dome visible above the Earth was just a small preview of this massive room under it.
They stood at the edge of a colossal three-story staircase overlooking a circular area twice the size of an American football field. Bookcases spanned the entirety of the walls along each of the three stories. Filled with countless scrolls, boxes, and figurines, it marveled the greatest libraries ever erected. The floor in the center of the room was composed of innumerable tiles creating equally magnificent yet different mosaics. Statues, glass tables, and ornately-carved shelves from the finest marble were strategically placed on it so as to not ruin the magnificent artwork it displayed. There were also crystals levitating above pedestals, each carved with ancient symbols or depictions of animals.
At a loss of what to do next, William asked in an exasperated tone, “Christine, any hints?”
The room shook slightly as a few scrolls fell from a bookcase next to them. Upon hitting the floor, one rolled up next to Terzin and struck her foot.
“Amazing,” she uttered. “Over 10,000 years old and the paper, or whatever it’s written on, is still intact.” Removing the brown tie around it, the two-foot-long scroll opened to reveal a picture of an animal unknown to her. Looking like a combination between a fox and a leopard, she could not identify it nor could she read the beautifully printed cuneiform-like print below it.
“There must be something in the air that can preserve such antiquities,” Terzin concluded.
“I bet this is a massive depository of ancient knowledge,” Christine said. “Just imagine what we could learn from it. The cave in Philadelphia pales in comparison.”
“Unless one of these scrolls tells us how to get out of here or stop all this madness,” William uttered, “I’m not in the mood to do some casual reading.”
“I agree,” Samantha chimed in. “Now’s not the time for sightseeing.” Feeling as if they had paused long enough, she insisted, “Let’s start searching this place for any clues.”
Two staircases leading in opposite directions away from the main banister overlooking the room descended to the second level. Leading the way, Samantha grabbed the marble railing and scurried down the steps. In her haste, she failed to appreciate the ornately-carved stone she touched on her descent. With different scenes, it told of an ancient story long lost to the grains of time.
William quickly followed her. Staring at the shield for some clue or inspiration, he was unsure of where to head next. The enormity of the room overwhelmed him, and he realized that it could take a lifetime to fully appreciate it. However, time was not a luxury he possessed. The clock was rapidly running out, and he also knew he had mere minutes to discover an answer.
“Terzin and Christine,” Samantha looked back and said, “you look around the third floor while William and I head down to the first.”
Christine pointed Terzin in one direction while she took off in the other direction around the massive perimeter surrounding the room. Inspired by Samantha’s words, they both ran, hoping to find any clue. More glass tables, bookshelves, and carved depictions of extinct animals greeted them along the way.
“Maybe you can find a clue that looks like a V-shaped star cluster or a depiction of Eve,” William yelled up to them as he and Samantha sprinted to the ground floor. “It got us this far.”
Christine looked at every sculpture, mosaic, tapestry, and crystal as she ran, hoping to find an answer. However, nothing particularly grabbed her attention. Though in awe of the ancient history, none of it seemed as if it would help.
After running almost half way around the room, Christine stopped at a glowing crystal levitating above a glass table. She had passed about twenty others along the way. Not that this one called out to her or seemed unique in any way, but she hoped that one of them might reveal some answers like the crystal under the Art Museum.
As she moved her hand toward it, the ancient artifact began to glow brighter and become transparent. Inside, Christine could see a vivid scene of a bustling city. The pillars on some of the stone buildings reminded her of something that would be found in ancient Greece. However, with fluted ceilings and multiple levels displaying elaborate, multicolored carvings, they were also reminiscent of Indian architecture.
The closer her hand approached, the more vivid the scene became and the more she became absorbed in it. She felt as if she were there, living amongst the people. As she touched the crystal, her mind drifted slowly away from her body. Unlike in Philadelphia, she was not totally immersed in the scene and could still feel her body and move her arm away from it at any time.
Christine could hear the people speak, and she felt what they were thinking. Some were off to work while others conducted more mundane tasks such as shopping or even sightseeing.
A large blast in the distance sent a chill down everyone’s spine as the mountain along the horizon erupted without warning. Though smoldering for years, this sudden explosion rocked the city and stopped her populous in their tracks. A bulbous plume of smoke shot up into the atmosphere, sending debris falling all around them. People began to scream and duck for safety in the surrounding buildings.
Nowhere was safe. Christine watched as a dense cloud of ash and lava flowing down the volcano sped towards the city. Known as pyroclastic flow, it quickly enveloped the entire area, instantly killing all life while burying the city beneath the ash.
Christine jolted her hand back, overcome by the scene.
The crystal then rotated slightly to reveal a different scene. This one brought not much more solace. Ancient ships locked in battle rammed one another while its soldiers were engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Christine wanted to see no more. Already haunted with scenes of death and destruction, she felt overwhelmed and distraught.
Backing her hand slightly further, the scenes slowly changed one by one. As if flipping through a magazine, she could stop at any time and view more. Hoping one of the scenes could provide some help as to what she was looking for, she continued to watch them scroll by in succession. While some remained violent, others appeared more mundane and depicted scenes of long extinct animals or even people doing daily chores on the farm.
With one eye on the entrance to this massive room and the other on the crystal, Christine cautiously continued to scan the scenes, ready to run at any second.
“You go that way William!” Samantha bellowed, pointing towards ivory-colored shelves full of small gadgets and scrolls. “I’ll examine these statues.”
“Got it,” William responded. His eyes darted and head whipped back and forth, attempting to process as much visual information as possible. All the while, he felt an eerie sense that the room would erupt at any second with a barrage of rail gun pellets ricocheting around him.
“You find anything?” Samantha shouted, looking up at the third floor.
“Nothing,” Terzin responded. Pulling out random scrolls and touching every statue, portrait, or table she passed, she hoped something important may jump out at her.
As Terzin moved from one item to the next, she did her best to remember any story she was told as a child that may help now. Recalling old myths, legends, and even bedtime stories, she rattled her memory hoping to jar something loose.
Samantha bolted over to a large mosaic. The closer she approached, the more magnificent it appeared. A large intricately designed globe that must have been created from a million tiny pieces of tile formed an entire map of the ancient Earth. Atop different areas on this mosaic were unique marble representations of megalithic cities. The details in each were utterly amazing and their craftsmanship must have been completed by a master artisan.
Examining them quickly, she hoped it would give her a clue as to how this room worked or where to look next. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the pyramids in Egypt. However, unlike the three that currently stood, a total of five megalithic wonders filled the space. There were also other spectacular ancient, architectural megalithic sites spotting the entire globe and a few on a large land mass in the Pacific that no longer existed.
There must have been a pre-flood megalithic society that spanned the globe, she concluded. Though completely fascinated, Samantha needed to move on to the next exhibit; there were no further clues to be found on this map.
A sudden tug on the shield pulled William to the side. At first, he assumed it was the rumblings of an earthquake but quickly realized the shield must have moved on its own.
“OK,” he said, talking to the shield as if it were real. “What are you trying to tell me?”
William stopped moving for a second and placed the shield in front of him. Slowly, he rotated his body, attempting to feel where it pulled him next. He then looked in the direction where he felt the greatest tug. With his arms held straight while holding the shield, he shuffled forward in that direction.
The ancient artifact began to pull him harder towards a glass table standing on a single large marble stand. A magnificent representation of the solar system levitating above the table rotated around the sun. He could almost feel the heat emanating from the yellow glowing ball in the center. Orbiting around it were nine realistic-appearing planets.
Taking a quick second to see if this was the shield’s intended target, William stopped to inspect it a little further. With spectacular detail, the solar system accurately portrayed the orbit of all eight known planets. It also had tiny little crystals representing the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. A multitude of tiny ice-like spheres orbited past Neptune’s orbit, which most likely represented Pluto-like planetoids.
The object that astonished William the most was a Jupiter-sized planet that orbited the sun at an extreme angle and brought it between Earth and Mars at its perihelion and far beyond Pluto at its aphelion. Though interested in examining the display further, he knew that he had no time to marvel at its lost mysteries.
William held the shield closer to the solar system, waiting for anything to happen. It began to tug him further, towards a table about ten feet beyond this one.
As William moved around the solar system, the pull on the shield became more noticeable.
“Everyone,” William shouted while looking around the room, “I think I’ve got something!”
As he scurried closer to the marble table in front of him, a large obelisk-appearing glass object in its center began to glow a brilliant red while the silver ball at its top sizzled and sparked.
“This is definitely it!” William again reiterated.
Wondering what he should do next, he remained still while his other companions joined him around the table.
“What did you do?” Samantha asked.
“You’re looking at it,” William exclaimed as sweat-filled anxiety poured over his brow. “I just walked over here and held up the shield. Then boom. This is what happened.”
“Well, what do we do now?” Samantha asked.
“Maybe, this is all I have to do,” William said. “Maybe the shield is doing its job.”
A circular area on the floor around the obelisk slowly began to rotate in a clockwise fashion, moving William and his companions with it. Like a corkscrew, the obelisk seemed to grow in length as they slowly descended to a lower level.
“Keep holding the shield in front of you,” Samantha beckoned. “Whatever you’re doing, it’s working.”
“Not like there’s any other option,” William responded as they slowly rotated further down to the room below.
Silently, they continued to descend until low enough to reveal what the floor above them concealed.
“And I thought I’d seen it all!” William declared in awe.